mkhedda مخدة
Moroccan Darija · noun
“mkhedda” (مخدة) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning pillow.
Meanings
- pillow
- cushion
Usage
Mkhedda is the usual word for the pillow you rest your head on to sleep. It is feminine: lmkhedda. The most common plural is mkhadd. By extension, it is sometimes used for a living-room cushion, even though other terms exist for that. In pronunciation, the kh is followed by a doubled d. It appears in everyday expressions about sleep and tiredness: ḥṭṭ rasso 3la lmkhedda, "he put his head on the pillow", meaning he fell asleep right away.
Example
عطيني شي مخدة خرى، هادي قاسحة
3tini chi mkhedda khra, hadi 9as7a
“Give me another pillow, this one is hard.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “mkhedda” but also “mkhadda”, “mkhdda” and “m5edda”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 5 is kha (خ), like the ch in Scottish loch.
Type “mkhedda” on the Arabic keyboard
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “pillow”; “cushion”: mkhadda in Tunisian.